Dulce de leche is sweetened milk that has been gently cooked until it is thickened, caramel-y, and, in summary, heavenly. It’s so good baked inside this old-fashioned favorite, with even more drizzled on top. A common issue people have when they bake apple pie is the amount of liquid the apples give off while the pie bakes. It used to drive me crazy, especially because even if I made the pie the same way every time, when I’d cut into it, sometimes there wasn’t much liquid and other times it was like the apples were swimming in the deep end of a pool. I finally realized that the best way around this was to cook the apples on the stovetop for a bit before transferring them to the pie shell. I do this with a slotted spoon to ensure that most of the liquid stays behind. Now I don’t hold my breath when I cut into my apple pie wondering what it will look like under the top crust. Instead, what I always find is fragrant, perfectly cooked apples.
| PREP: 25 minutes | COOK: 1 hour 30 minutes | COOL: 1 hour |
Dough for 2 Pie Crusts or a store-bought 9-inch double-crust deep-dish pie crust
4 tablespoons (½ stick) salted butter
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 pounds Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, and/or Braeburn apples, peeled and thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup dulce de leche, plus warmed dulce de leche for serving
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon coarse raw (turbinado) sugar
2 pints vanilla ice cream, for serving
1. Lightly dust the counter with flour and roll one dough out to a round 3½ inches larger than a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Transfer the dough to the pie plate and carefully ease it into the edges of the plate. Trim the dough to an even ½ inch all around and leave the overhang. For the top pastry round, roll the second dough out to a round that is big enough to allow a 1/2-inch overhang all around. Transfer it to a baking sheet. Refrigerate it and the lined pie plate until needed.
2. In a large saucepan, heat the butter over medium-high heat. When foaming, stir in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. Gently stir in the apples. Cover and cook until the apples begin to soften and the liquid comes to a boil.
3. Stir in the flour. Continue cooking until the apples are almost tender, 5 to 10 more minutes. Do not let the apples turn soggy or begin to break apart. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
4. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
5. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the filling to the pie shell, mounding the apples in the center. Drizzle ¼ cup of the cooking liquid over the apples. Heat ¼ cup dulce de leche in the microwave for about 30 seconds until pourable, then drizzle it over the apples.
6. Cover the pie with the top pastry round, turn under the edges, and crimp closed. Brush the top crust lightly and evenly with the milk and then sprinkle with the raw sugar. Cut six 2-inch slits in the top crust to release steam.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and continue baking until the crust is deep golden brown and juices bubble through the steam vents, about 45 more minutes. Shield the edge of the crust with foil if it browns too quickly.
8. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack to set the filling before cutting. (Reheat the pie at 350°F for about 20 minutes if you would like to serve the pie warm.)
9. Serve at room temperature or warm topped with ice cream and warm dulce de leche.
10. Cover leftover pie and store at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Makes one 9-inch pie; 8 servings